Éléonore de Roye

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Éléonore de Roye (* February 24, 1535 in Châtillon-sur-Loing ; † July 23, 1564 in the Condé Castle , Condé-en-Brie ), in contemporary writings always just called Dame de Roye , was through marriage to Louis I. de Bourbon Princess of Condé . The staunch Protestant actively supported her husband during the French Wars of Religion as the leader of the Huguenot side and represented the interests of her family and those of her husband during his captivity in 1560/61 and 1562/63 with diplomatic skill. With their death, the French Protestants lost one of their most influential advocates at the French royal court.

family

Éléonore de Roye was the eldest daughter of Charles de Royes, Count of Roucy, and his wife Madeleine de Mailly, dame de Conti . She got her name after one of her godmothers, Eleanor of Castile , the second wife of the French king Franz I. Her second godmother was Margaret of Valois . Through her maternal grandmother, Louise de Montmorency, a sister of Connétables Anne de Montmorency , she was not only related to the influential noble family of Montmorency , but also had excellent contacts to the Protestant family through Louise's second marriage to the French Marshal Gaspard I. de Coligny .

On June 22, 1551 she married Louis I de Bourbon in the castle of Plessis-de-Roye . The ceremony was held by the groom's uncle, Cardinal Charles de Bourbon , known as Cardinal de Bourbon . From this marriage there were eight children:

  • Henri I (December 29, 1552 - March 5, 1588), Prince of Condé
  • Marguerite (born November 8, 1556), died young
  • Charles (November 3, 1557 - 1558), Count of Vallery
  • François (19 August 1558 - 3 August 1614), Prince of Conti
  • Louis (March 30, 1562 - October 19, 1563), Count of Anisy
  • Charles II (March 30, 1562; † 1594), Archbishop of Rouen
  • Madeleine (7 October 1563 - 7 October 1563)
  • Catherine (* 1564), died young

Through her husband's older brother, Antoine de Bourbon , Éléonore met his wife Jeanne d'Albret , who later also belonged to the Protestant faith as Queen of Navarre . In her the Princess of Condé found a lifelong, close friend and ally.

Life

Éléonore was raised strictly in the Protestant faith by her mother. At Gaspard de Coligny's instigation, her parents' plans flourished in 1550 to marry her to Louis, a son of Charles de Bourbon , Duke of Vendôme. They received permission from King Henry II to do so , although both the powerful Guisen family and Diane de Poitiers , their allies and influential mistresses of the king, were strictly against this connection. The wedding took place in June 1551 in Plessis-de-Roye . Shortly thereafter, Louis left his wife to take part in several military campaigns on the side of the French king. The couple were therefore almost permanently separated from each other until the spring of 1556, with the exception of a few very brief interruptions. Éléonore moved to the castle of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre and gave birth to her first son Henri in December 1552.

When her husband was arrested during the Estates General in Orléans in 1560/61 after the Amboise conspiracy on charges of high treason, she proved to be an extremely diplomatic and determined advocate of the House of Bourbon , because in addition to her husband, Éléonore's mother, Madeleine de Mailly, was dame de Conti, who came under suspicion and was therefore placed under house arrest in Saint-Germain-en-Laye Castle . When she heard of Louis' arrest, she went to Orléans on the spot to assist him in his defense. Initially, however, Éléonore was forbidden from any contact with her husband. However, through persistence and perseverance, she finally got the king to have Louis represented in his defense by two lawyers. Even so, he was sentenced to death. Only the unexpected death of Franz II prevented the sentence from being carried out on December 10, 1561. Instead, Louis was pardoned and the couple traveled to Fontainebleau with the French court . There his apartments in the castle became the meeting point of the most influential Huguenots in France.

In the period that followed, Éléonore became one of the most important advisers to her husband, who had become one of the Huguenot leaders in France, not least because of her relatives to the Montmorency and Coligny families. She accompanied and supported him at the Talcy Conference in Talcy Castle on June 28 and 29, 1562, at which her brother-in-law Antoine, the regent Catherine de Medici and the underage Charles IX. participated.

She showed her extraordinary courage when she stayed in Orléans in 1562 after the birth of her twin sons Louis and Charles, despite the plague raging in the city . There she received news of her husband's capture in the Battle of Dreux . Through perseverance and numerous petitions to Katharina von Medici, the princess managed to ease the conditions of her husband's detention with and with. She then prepared the content of the Edict of Amboise by meeting the regent in Saint-Mesmin .

After Éléonore de Roye was seriously ill during a stay at Gaillon Palace in 1563 but then recovered, she developed acute hemorrhage in April 1564 , which was a symptom of an organ disease. After three months of suffering, she died at the age of 29 in the family castle in Condé-en-Brie.

literature

  • Jacqueline Aslanian: Oser l'espérance. Témoignages de femmes . Editions Farel, 2001, ISBN 2-86314-249-6 , pp. 179-180 ( online ).
  • Alexandre-Claude Bellier-Duchesnay: Collection universelle des memoires particuliers relatifs à l'histoire de France . Volume 41, Paris 1788, p. 217 ( digitized version ).
  • Jane Couchman, Colette H. Winn (Eds.): Autour d'Éléonore de Roye, princesse de Condé. Étude du milieu protestant dans les années 1550-1565 à partir de documents authentiques nouvellement édités. Champion, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-7453-2355-2 .
  • Louis Jules H. Delaborde: Éléonore de Roye, princesse de Condé 1535–1564 . Sandoz & Fischbacher, Paris 1876 ( digitized ).
  • Eugène and Émile Haag: La France protestante. Ou vies des protestants français qui se sont fait un nom dans l'histoire depuis les premiers temps de la reformation jusqu'à la reconnaissance du principe de la liberté des cultes par l'Assemblée nationale . Volume 7. Joël Cherbuliez, Paris 1857, pp. 172-173 ( digitized version ).
  • Jane Pannier: Éléonore de Roye, princesse de Condé . Fischbacher, Paris 1901.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A.-C. Bellier-Duchesnay: Collection universelle des memoires particuliers relatifs à l'histoire de France , p. 217.
  2. ^ Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale : Histoire des princes de Condé pendant les XVIe et XVIIe siècles . Volume 1. Michel Lévy Frères, Paris 1863, pp. 27-28 ( online ).
  3. ^ Hugh Noel Williams: The love-affairs of the Condés (1530-1740) . Methuen & Co., London 1912, p. 7 ( online ).
  4. ↑ LJH Delaborde: Éléonore de Roye , p. 9
  5. ↑ LJH Delaborde: Éléonore de Roye , S. 79th
  6. ↑ LJH Delaborde: Éléonore de Roye , S. 250th
personal data
SURNAME Roye, Éléonore de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roye, Léonore de; Royes, Éléonore de; Dame de Roye
BRIEF DESCRIPTION by marriage to the Princess of Condé
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1535
PLACE OF BIRTH Châtillon-sur-Loing
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1564
Place of death Condé-en-Brie